Saudi Arabia breaks beIN monopoly

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) has received a letter from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) informing it that the latter has canceled the “beIN sport” channels’ monopoly on Asian continent matches and competitions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This move followed AFC’s review of the letters and legal reasons. These included the illegality of beIN sport to transmit in the Kingdom due to the grave violations of the laws and regulations beIN sport has committed, in addition to its inability to obtain the required licenses necessary for it to fulfill its commitments in transmitting AFC’s competitions to the viewers and followers in the Kingdom.

In light of this, a decision was taken to cancel the beIN sport monopoly over all Asian Football Confederation competitions. These matches will begin to be transmitted within the Kingdom via AFC platforms gradually with first being the match between Saudi team Al-Hilal and Qatari team Al-Duhail to be held on Tuesday evening.

As a preliminary step, the Kingdom will provide the transmission crew to accompany the commentators and analysts. Work on the necessary technical arrangements in this regard has begun.

While announcing this just decision by the AFC, the SAFF appealed to all international federations to take similar measures and decisions that would maintain seamless transmission of this game to the fans and help desist all from using the game for political purposes.

“We hope that Arab federations, in particular, will take similar measures to ensure sports are in conformity with all norms, laws and principles of competition while also combating monopoly,” SAFF said in its statement.

At the same time, SAFF stressed that it is keen to continue working with the rights holders and official authorities to provide platforms to would enable Saudi and expatriate viewers to enjoy the competitions, without sports being a casualty.